bruin
First Post
No, you can get by with Renard's list as enough information. Because the story holds Thurber's first experience with Pickman's ghouls, it might be worth looking at, as your characters might get creeped out by Thurber's account of things, but I'm assuming they'd dismiss it as Thurber's lunacy rather than a real threat. So there's no reason you need to read it to advance the story, but it might provide some topic for discussion amongst the group.
Hints: The newspaper article provides an additional clue to narrowing down your research into finding Pickman's place, and the diary provides you some alternate ways into the tunnel system if you can't find Pickman's place. The further away you enter, though, the more tunnel you have to traverse. The alternates are easier to research maybe but harder in terms of what you'll face. So I'm leaving this all pretty open-ended, with lots of paths you could take at this point.
Hints: The newspaper article provides an additional clue to narrowing down your research into finding Pickman's place, and the diary provides you some alternate ways into the tunnel system if you can't find Pickman's place. The further away you enter, though, the more tunnel you have to traverse. The alternates are easier to research maybe but harder in terms of what you'll face. So I'm leaving this all pretty open-ended, with lots of paths you could take at this point.